Four more persons were killed in firing by the J-K Police and Central Reserve Police Force, taking the toll of recent civilian deaths to 16. Those killed included a student and a woman in Srinagar city.
In the aftermath, the situation is tense and the government?s response has been to unsuccessfully impose curfew restrictions in an effort to again put a lid over the simmering anger. Angry protesters attacked the ancestral house of a close confidant of the Abdullah family and top National Conference stalwart Mohideen Shah and set it on fire.
After Shah?s death, his son Irfan Shah was anointed as the NC?s youth wing president before he contested and won Batamaloo constituency on an NC ticket. The attack on Shah?s house in the city?s Magarmal Bagh locality has serious political implications because he had been the party?s local stalwart for the past more than five decades besides being a close associate of Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah.
On the ground, the Omar Abdullah-led coalition appears to have lost control of the situation in a way that is almost reminiscent of the mass protests in 1990. The CRPF opened fire at five places in the city today while scores of young men threw stones and bricks at the forces who were trying to impose curfew.